being political, to concerns that the academy was in
the hands of radicals from the 1960’s and that a so-
called golden age when students and professors
studied the “great books” of the West had been de-
stroyed. Supporters of more inclusive and more crit-
ical analyses as well as a more diverse academy of stu-
dents and professors emphasized developments in
scholarship that were including the story of peoples
who were left out of previous accounts, revising in-
terpretations through new approaches and ques-
tions, addressing issues concerning inequities in
American society, as well as enriching the country’s
understanding of the past. They noted that the ear-
lier times to which contemporary critics pointed
were much less “golden” than their proclamation
suggested, included problems of access and discrim-
ination of certain groups in colleges and universi-
ties, and that debates about curricular issues and re-
visions had a very long history. The varying issues
and debates are illustrated in numerous works, such
as Dinesh D’Souza’sIlliberal Education(1991), which
condemns multiculturalism in the academy, and
Lawrence Levine’sThe Opening of the American Mind
(1996), which defends developments in higher
learning and critiques the arguments of the critics.
Accountability Some attempts to revitalize educa-
tion in the schools were incorporated in legislation,
such as Goals 2000: Educate America Act of 1994,
which codified the 1989 conference goals and
added parental participation and the professional
development of teachers to the original goals. Those
goals included readying children to start school;
achieving high rates of high school graduation and
literacy so that citizens could do well in a global
economy; developing high standards in numerous
academic subjects, with performance competency
in grades four, eight, and twelve; and ensuring that
students will be first in science and math in the world
and that the schools will be drug- and violence-free.
Grants were to be given to help states to set high stan-
dards and to develop assessments for progress. Al-
though this act was passed with largely bipartisan
support under President Bill Clinton, intense dif-
ferences would soon emerge in relation to educa-
tion reform and criticism of such areas as bilingual
education, and would be inserted into the 1996
presidential campaign of Republican candidate
Bob Dole and English-only groups. The Improving
America’s Schools Act of 1994 (reauthorization of
the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act,
begun under President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great
Society program) included provisions for account-
ability of schools and standards-based reform, with
Title I of the program specifically providing help for
students from high-poverty areas.
Critics of developments relating to testing ex-
pressed concern that teaching would be focused on
taking tests, that tests could not measure all aspects
of learning, and that all of this could have a negative
impact on students in impoverished schools and did
not solve the problem of inequities in income and
funding. On the higher education level, there was
discussion about measures of ability such as the
Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), used by many col-
leges and universities in the admission process, and
their validity as an adequate measure of learning
or potential and their bias in certain respects. At
the same time, some states during the decade, such
as California, moved away from affirmative action
plans in admissions of students.Reorganization, Choice, Teacher Preparation De-
velopments in the 1990’s also included school reor-
ganization through site-based management, ele-
ments of choice such as charter schools, heated
debate about the use of vouchers, and attempts to
improve schools through coalitions or proposals to
improve school practice, as well as efforts to advance
the preparation and professional development
of teachers. Interest in site-based management—
bringing the management of schools closer to mem-
bers of the academic community, such as principals,
teachers, and parents—grew, particularly in some
large urban centers, and departed from a more cen-
tralized approach to school organization. Charter
schools, although supported by public funds, were
given much leeway in hiring and other decisions,
with the provision that they adhere to innovation
and accountability to improve education. This ef-
fort, first approved in Minnesota in 1991, was fol-
lowed by California in 1992 and numerous other
states throughout the decade. Vouchers or certifi-
cates, which parents could use toward their child’s
private school if they so chose, became an area of
great contention. The issue became embroiled in
the politics of the era. Some states utilized them, and
critics felt that they could take valuable resources
away from the public schools, particularly those in
high-poverty, low-income areas.288 Education in the United States The Nineties in America